LSA
An adult supporting a child in class. Done well, they work to written targets under clinical supervision with a plan to withdraw. Done badly, they become a barrier between a child and their classmates.
Why an LSA matters.
The risk here is specific and well documented: a permanently attached adult can reduce the very thing they were hired to increase. Classmates stop approaching, the teacher stops teaching that child directly, and dependence on adult proximity grows.
None of that is an argument against classroom support. It is an argument for supervision, written targets and a fading plan agreed before the first day — the three things an agency placement usually does not include.
Questions that get a real answer
- Who supervises them, how often, and what do they look at?
- What are this term's written targets?
- What is the plan to reduce their proximity, and when does it start?
Ask these of anyone, including us. What you are listening for is not the right answer — it is whether the answer is specific enough to be wrong.
Terms that usually turn up alongside it.
Occupational therapy
Therapy focused on the practical business of daily life — motor skills, self-care, sensory regulation, and
GlossaryPhonological awareness
Hearing and manipulating the sounds inside spoken words — rhyme, syllables, the individual sounds in "cat".
GlossaryPragmatic language
The social use of language — turn-taking, staying on topic, reading tone, knowing how much background a
Send it to us and we'll translate it.
Any report, from any provider, including ones we have nothing to do with. We will tell you in plain English what it says, what it recommends, and which parts are actually supported by the evidence in it. No charge, and it does not make you a client.